A cold wave of grassy air spilled through the alleyway. As we circled the bend, there, at the horizon, we saw thousands. Thousands, spreading through the street as if they had grown there for ages, dropping chaff, sprouting tubers, and working their way toward the mineral-rich core of these links. Alex Konstad – His characters [...]

A cold wave of grassy air spilled through the alleyway. As we circled the bend, there, at the horizon, we saw thousands. Thousands, spreading through the street as if they had grown there for ages, dropping chaff, sprouting tubers, and working their way toward the mineral-rich core of these links.

Alex Konstad – His characters are incredible. His creatures are even better. Otherworldly oddities with all sorts of interesting details.

Read Planet Rise – The Martian landscape, created by Sean Doran with data from the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Like you’re there.

Christo – The artist famous for wrap art and massive belief-defying installations passed away at the age of 84. These are some of his projects.

Wood carving is, in and of itself, an art form. It takes a lot of time and effort to turn a chunk of wood into something functional, let alone beautiful. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I think we can all agree this accurate scale wood carving of a Toyota [...]

Wood carving is, in and of itself, an art form. It takes a lot of time and effort to turn a chunk of wood into something functional, let alone beautiful. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I think we can all agree this accurate scale wood carving of a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser is pretty dang impressive.

Created by YouTube channel Woodworking Art, the body of the car is made from a single chunk of wood. Using paper profiles of a real Land Cruiser as a guide, the form is transferred to the wood and cut out using a band saw.

The outline of the wooden Land Cruiser falls off just fine but in order to make room for the seats and wheels, a mallet has to be used to pop out the excess wood.

Once the base shape has been formed, the Land Cruiser undergoes some sanding before going through a number of smaller saws, drills, and chisels to get the details in.

Some of the parts made from other pieces of wood include the doors, hatch, and hood. Measurements are made to fit these bits onto the body, followed by lots of chiseling and shaping with a drill bit to add those extra details.

Honorable mentions go to the front of the car and the intricate engine detailing. You know there’s a keen attention to detail when a segment which can easily be hidden (in this case the engine) is fully carved to match its real-life counterpart.

The last visible pieces to be carved are the wheels, circular pieces of wood complete with fully detailed rims and tire ridges.

By now, this stationary wood carving would easily classify as a work of art once fully assembled. But they go the extra mile and add a working chassis under the Land Cruiser using a mix of wood pieces, bearings, and springs. Just like a real car, the chassis is attached to the body with the wheels soon to follow.

With the base fully completed, the rest of the Land Cruiser can finally be assembled. Some pieces are glued while moving parts are attached for full articulation.

Once finished, with some parts painted, the entire vehicle model is coated with a clear wood finish to make it shine.

Words and images don’t do this wooden Toyota Prado Land Cruiser justice, so if you have the time, be sure to check out the full video on YouTube at Woodworking Art. You can also find a ton of car and non-car related wood art there as well!

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Note: This is concept software! Interested in available 8-bit/DOS modelers? Check out Magicvoxel, 3D Studio DOS, or Mikshape3D! Game developer Johan Peitz posted a tweet recently with a video of a project he’s working on called “PICO CAD”. It’s a kind of 8-bit 3D modeling system to develop very simple 3D objects. We don’t yet [...]

Game developer Johan Peitz posted a tweet recently with a video of a project he’s working on called “PICO CAD”. It’s a kind of 8-bit 3D modeling system to develop very simple 3D objects.

We don’t yet know much about PICO CAD, as Peitz has posted only a single, tantalizing tweet about the project and answered a few questions, which turn out mostly to be “can I download this?” The answer, it turns out, is “Not yet”, according to Peitz.

The PICO CAD system uses a four-window scheme where you see top, front and side views of a 3D object, along with a perspective view. This is a great way to view 3D objects during development, and is also used by popular — and far more advanced — systems like Rhinoceros 3D.

If you watch the brief video below, you’ll see how the user interface works. It seems you add simple objects like a cube, for example, and then modify it by stretching it in each of the different orthographic viewports.

It looks simple, but Peitz says he intends on adding more functionality in the future, perhaps before releasing it. One specific technology to be added is UV maps, which is a 3D method to apply a color texture to a 3D surface. It’s commonly used in game development 3D packages, and apparently will be so in Pico CAD, too.

The project seems to be related to “PICO-8”, a “Fantasy Console” for developing 8-bit online games. PICO-8 explains:

“PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs. It feels like a regular console, but runs on Windows / Mac / Linux. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a command line, a suite of cartridge creation tools, and an online cartridge browser called SPLORE.”

Peitz seems to be developing the PICO CAD system to work in conjunction with PICO-8, so it may be that PICO-8 will have a 3D editor for developing 8-bit 3D assets.

It’s not clear whether PICO CAD will ever be able to export a 3D model, but it sounds like Peitz may consider this.

PICO CAD would never be useful as a professional or industrial 3D print tool, but it certainly could be an excellent way to indoctrinate youngsters into 3D thinking. Peitz describes PICO CAD as the “Pixel Artist’s” CAD tool. PICO CAD could be a first step into 3D CAD for many, and that will increase the number of folks able to use 3D printing.

Next to Iron Man’s repulsors and Spider-Man’s web shooters, the most iconic piece of equipment in the Marvel universe has to be Wolverine’s adamantium claws. More a part of his anatomy than actual weapons, these claws (three on each hand) have varying origins. In some forms of media, Wolverine has adamantium claws grafted onto his [...]

Next to Iron Man’s repulsors and Spider-Man’s web shooters, the most iconic piece of equipment in the Marvel universe has to be Wolverine’s adamantium claws.

More a part of his anatomy than actual weapons, these claws (three on each hand) have varying origins. In some forms of media, Wolverine has adamantium claws grafted onto his body as a result of forced experimentation. In others, he is born with bone claws which then get injected with the metal… also as a result of forced experimentation.

The Hacksmith doesn’t condone any form of forced experimentation, but he does love the idea of having bone claws. So instead of making the iconic metal claws, he’s going a different route and crafting Wolverine’s pre-forced experimentation bone claws:

1. Make A Template

Using both his original claw design as well as the electrified variant, James makes a template using SOLIDWORKS. Since this new design harkens back to Wolverine’s pre-metal claws, he makes a couple of small cuts to mimic the appearance of bones.

He adds some curvature to the bones to give them a more natural look before thickening the “joint” area so the final claws won’t snap while slicing through things. After 3D printing a series of prototypes and iterating, James is happy enough to use this new design to start manufacturing the bone claws.

2. Cut And Shape The “Bone” Claws

Contrary to their namesake, these particular bone claws aren’t made of bone; they’re made of metal. So METAL.

Bone isn’t the material you want if you want to stab and slice items, so James cuts a couple of metal claws and grinds them down to give them the appearance of bone.

He eventually plans to give the claws a powder coat of paint to look more natural but, for now, shaping the claws certainly helps with the whole “bone” motif.

3. Make The Handles

To keep the claws positioned for his hand, James temporarily tack welds the pieces together after fitting them in between his fingers.

This allows him to craft and attach handles for a perfect fit. He welds the handles to the base of the claws before grinding down the edges to protect his his hands, then removes the temporary support piece.

4. Sandblast And Powder Coat

Before getting to the slicing and dicing, James sandblasts the claws and has them powder coated. While he sandblasts the claws himself, his workshop doesn’t quite have the tools for powder coating sends them out for the finishing touches.

5. Time For A Berserker Barrage!

Once the claws have been powder coated, James lets loose with his animalistic rage. Unsuspecting sacks of rice, cabbage, and various fruits are no match for these “bone” claws and a man who just shaved one-third of his beard on camera.

But what’s really impressive is how the bone claws cut through concrete blocks with no problem. He has to wrap his hands in protective gear to do so, but seeing someone cut through concrete with metal claws is still pretty darn cool.

Rise up from that pile of 45x45mm high-precision extruded aluminum for a moment and pay attention. Vention has announced a $38M CAD ($28.1M USD) series-B financing round to spread its cloud-based machine-building bliss far and wide. This brings their funding total to $58.5M CAD ($43.4 USD) since their first Seed Round in 2018. The funding [...]

Rise up from that pile of 45x45mm high-precision extruded aluminum for a moment and pay attention. Vention has announced a $38M CAD ($28.1M USD) series-B financing round to spread its cloud-based machine-building bliss far and wide. This brings their funding total to $58.5M CAD ($43.4 USD) since their first Seed Round in 2018.

The funding was led by Georgia Partners who have a software specialized ‘Impact Team’ to accelerate their investment’s software initiatives. For Vention, this entails expanding the use of ‘artificial intelligence and machine learning for machine design and digital supply chains.’

They’ve been building out their platform’s part library and pre-configured design library with plans to ‘release significant changes’ later this year.

As I’ve said in the past, the applications for this spread far beyond machine design, but Vention has started out with a focus that hits a wide set of industries where custom equipment builds are constantly needed in a sector no one else is thinking about.

Recently, we covered how commercial vinyl records are made by a processing plant. However, what if you could make your own records from the comfort of home? Eager to go vintage vinyl and migrate more music from digital to analog, Seth Nicholas Johnson of Haunted Birthday Records shows an easy way to make homemade records: [...]

Eager to go vintage vinyl and migrate more music from digital to analog, Seth Nicholas Johnson of Haunted Birthday Records shows an easy way to make homemade records:

1. Cut Some Polycarbonate Plastic

While most records you find in a store are made from vinyl, the materials used to make them aren’t as easy to acquire. Instead, Seth recommends using a sheet of polycarbonate plastic, which is easier to acquire and has just as much malleability and potential sound quality as vinyl does.

You can cut your record into whatever shape you like (a circle is usually the norm), but make sure you drill a hole in the middle using either a drill press or a hand drill. In Seth’s case, he cuts his record into a square shape and drills a hole using his drill press.

2. Acquire and Master Your Desired Audio

The next thing you need is some audio to store into the polycarbonate. Once you have the audio files, make sure to master said audio so it stays as true as possible to the original material. (He’s using the freely available Audacity software in this example.) This is where some trial and error comes in but his main recommendation is to apply an Inverse RIAA Curve to make it less noisy.

3. Calibrate Your Recording Equipment

This is where Seth’s method for making homemade records gets a bit dubious and, really, can differ widely depending on your budget and available equipment. Not everyone has a mixing board, equalizer, or record lathe in their home, yet these are some of the most important things needed to record audio onto a piece of polycarbonate.

Regardless, he highly suggests checking each piece of equipment to make sure it is configured to the type of audio you wish to record. This ranges from something as simple as adjusting volume to completely recalibrating your equalizer.

4. Emboss And Record Your… Record

To record audio onto your polycarbonate sheet, you have to first make it temporarily malleable. Apply some turtle wax or lighter fluid onto the polycarbonate and once it’s fully coated, set it on your record lathe and drop the needle to begin the recording process.

5. Refine and Adjust Your Recording Process

The first record you make will unlikely be the one you keep. There will be problems with your first, second, and maybe even tenth attempt at making a record, be it equalizing issues or a dull recording needle.

When this happens, recalibrate your equipment and start again until you’re happy with the final product. It will take some time, but having your own record to listen to is definitely worth it.

6. Label and Box Your Final Record

After much remastering and rerecording, you will hopefully have a record you are happy with. All that’s left to do now is label said record, give it a sleeve, and add some décor to make it all your own.

If you want to skip this whole process and just have embossed records sent to you directly, Haunted Birthday Records makes handmade, lathe-embossed records for you to enjoy. Check them out for some great music too.

Part of the joy of gardening is the anticipation of that first fruit and vegetable appearing, then growing, then ripening. It takes time, care, and lots of patience. With a new technology in work by Root AI over the past few years, all of that could be left to the robots. Root AI Virgo Root [...]

Part of the joy of gardening is the anticipation of that first fruit and vegetable appearing, then growing, then ripening. It takes time, care, and lots of patience. With a new technology in work by Root AI over the past few years, all of that could be left to the robots.

Root AI Virgo

Root AI demonstrated the future of large-scale agriculture just over a year ago. Their robot, Virgo, is capable of real-time ripeness detection, has a patent-pending, soft-touch gripper to grapple the fruit just right, and intelligent motion that’s faster than a group of caffeinated farmers at harvest time, 24/7.

True Garden / Tower Garden

Another company in the same indoor farm/aeroponic industry is True Garden, provider of organic seedlings, and growing medium who has partnered with Tower Garden, creators of the Tower gardening system. We’ve seen cool modular vertical gardens concepts, but these two are taking the process of growing fresh vegetables to, quite literally, a new level with their vertical gardens that require zero-dirt and very little water. Together, they’ve modularized the system to where it can be used in the home, on the countertop, for small urban farms, or large commercial growers.

Now, combine what Root AI is doing with what True/Tower Garden is doing. Potentially, you could have fresh fruits and vegetables sourced, selected, and shipped, within a matter of minutes, to stores and consumers. Applying the logistics automation advanced with companies like Amazon with fresh produce. Of course, there’s still the joy of having your own garden, vertical tower or not.

Much more information is available on each site. You can see the latest updates when you follow Tower Garden and True Garden on Twitter. Though things have been quiet at Root AI for the past year, their Twitter stream is active.

It isn’t difficult to grow plants when you have your own garden, but what if you live in a cramped apartment? Not everyone has the space to get their green thumb on, so Chilean industrial designer Lorenzo Vega thought it would be useful to make a modular planter which makes use of otherwise unused vertical [...]

It isn’t difficult to grow plants when you have your own garden, but what if you live in a cramped apartment? Not everyone has the space to get their green thumb on, so Chilean industrial designer Lorenzo Vega thought it would be useful to make a modular planter which makes use of otherwise unused vertical real estate:

Inpsired by the Japanese architectural movement called Metabolism, the modular planter uses a series of square floors and circular holes to hold your local plant life. Simply put your plant in a small pot, add a floor tile, and watch your green baby grow.

Icon of Japanese Metabolism architecture, The Nakagin Capsule Tower.

Concept drawings for the modular planter design.Final rendering of the vertical stacking concept for the modular planter design.The two base parts for the modular planter design.Adding the planter sections together.

The planter’s main feature is its LEGO-like modules. You can add a new floor either on the side or above your existing garden to make room more plants. If your plants start to get bigger, you can slot in an extra see-through vertical wall for your growing babies.

Creating different configurations of the modular planter.

On the countertop or on the patio, it creates more space and more fresh greens.

The best part about the modular planter is how you can adapt and rearrange it to your personal preference or space. If you decide to move some plants or if you’re looking for a change of scenery, all you need to do is adjust the modules, add some here, place some there.

Lorenzo Vega has more details about this versatile plant holder on his Behance page. It’s an ingenious concept design we would like to see put into production or provided as 3D print. The idea actually lends itself to variations that could be made with sustainable materials — wood or clay pots, for example. Though the water column will be important for some plants, many have grown veggies, herb, and other plants on their countertops for years, so it’s certainly doable. If you have a variation of this design, do share!

If you’ve been waiting nearly a decade for American astronauts to launch on American soil from an American rocket, today is your day. At 3:22 EDT, NASA and SpaceX will launch SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on a Falcon 9 rocket. The Demo-2 mission is the first time [...]

If you’ve been waiting nearly a decade for American astronauts to launch on American soil from an American rocket, today is your day. At 3:22 EDT, NASA and SpaceX will launch SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on a Falcon 9 rocket. The Demo-2 mission is the first time NASA will launch a commercially built spacecraft.

Up until the launch, they are providing a mix of live and pre-recorded insight and interviews on the mission, the astronauts, and more.

Crew Dragon Has Launched!

The Dragon crew succeesfully launched My 30th at 3:22 PM EDT. See the full video leading up to and after the launch. The actual launch starts just after 4:20:00 into the live video feed.

Inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon

In a video from onboard the SpaceX Crew Drragon Spacecraft, astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley provide a tour of the interior and instrumentation, with a reveal of the formal name they chose for the spacecraft and why you saw the stuffed dinosaur floating around after they reached zero-gravity.

Crew Dragon Arrival!

After a successful docking, astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley join the crew aboard the International Space Station. The boarding picks up on the live feed at 3:32:00.

SpaceX and Boeing Spacecraft Compared

Everyday Astronaut has an excellent video showing you how the two commercial ventures will take people into space.

May 27th Attempt

Update: Unfortunately, weather conditions did not cooperate for the May 27th, 4:33 PM EDT launch! The launch was postponed to Saturday, May 30th at 3:22 p.m. EDT. (See above.)

After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will be welcomed aboard station and will become members of the Expedition 63 crew. They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.

Although the Crew Dragon being used for this flight test can stay in orbit about 110 days, the specific mission duration will be determined once on station based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch. The operational Crew Dragon spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days as a NASA requirement.

Upon conclusion of the mission, Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with the two astronauts on board, depart the space station and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Upon splashdown just off Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the crew will be picked up at sea by SpaceX’s Go Navigator recovery vessel and return to Cape Canaveral.

Outside the worn iron gate, a north wind blew at their backs as they approached. All five, scarred from battle, hardened by storm, returned with the largest cache of dried licorice root the village had ever seen, extracted, they came to learn later, from the stringy cheek meats of these links. Ryan Gitter – A [...]

Outside the worn iron gate, a north wind blew at their backs as they approached. All five, scarred from battle, hardened by storm, returned with the largest cache of dried licorice root the village had ever seen, extracted, they came to learn later, from the stringy cheek meats of these links.

Ryan Gitter – A wide range of art and influence in concept art that introduces you to characters in strange and beautiful lands, leaving a desire to explore.

Binhai Science Museum – An architectural gem completed last year in Binhai, China as photographed by Kris Provoost.

We all know how Google Search works: type in something you want to know and Google magically collates everything about it on the Internet in less than a second. But did you know Google Search has an option to easily view 3D content? By clicking the “View in 3D” button at the bottom part portion [...]

We all know how Google Search works: type in something you want to know and Google magically collates everything about it on the Internet in less than a second.

But did you know Google Search has an option to easily view 3D content?

By clicking the “View in 3D” button at the bottom part portion of any compatible link, you can view assets in 3D. You can then rotate, push, and pull the object to look at it from all angles. It saves you time and effort as you don’t have to open a dozen links on different tabs to find the 3D content you are searching for.

This is already cool on a normal computer, but Google ups the ante by allowing those with an AR space to take 3D models from the “View in 3D” option and hold them in their virtual hands. You get a better sense of the object’s dimensions and (using the coffee maker gif above as an example), see if it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

After viewing objects in Google Search 3D, a similar button marked “Visit” allows you to go directly to the 3D object’s webpage without having to return to your previous search history.

While the 3D and AR features are available anywhere in the world where Google Search is available, only a select number of organizations have access to them. If you want to make your 3D searches easier, you can sign up here.

The idea of parallel 3D printing is incredibly powerful. The rap against 3D printers has long been that they are monumentally slower than traditional manufacturing equipment to produce finished units, even though they are able to make objects of any design on the next print job. This slowness has sometimes been the reason for not [...]

The rap against 3D printers has long been that they are monumentally slower than traditional manufacturing equipment to produce finished units, even though they are able to make objects of any design on the next print job.

This slowness has sometimes been the reason for not considering 3D printing as a manufacturing option, along with the unavailability of desired materials. However, in recent years the breadth of material selection has widened considerably, and now includes many popular engineering materials.

It’s now possible to make many types of end-use parts on 3D printers, but they are still slow.

But that constraint can be overcome with parallelism. If a single device takes two hours to produce a part, then 100 devices can produce 50 parts per hour. Slant 3D’s Gabe Bentz explains this well in his 2018 TEDxBoise talk:

I spoke with Bentz recently to find out more about this concept and specifically what is being done at Slant 3D.

Bentz explained that his company, Slant 3D, is attempting to produce a large-scale manufacturing operation based solely on 3D printing technology. He says they now operate the “largest 3D print farm in North America”, with a “couple hundred machines” all capable of operating in parallel to produce thousands of parts on demand.

Bentz says they currently are focused on jobs ranging from 10-20,000 pieces, and even take on jobs requiring 100,000 parts.

This is all part of a larger plan, according to Bentz, who is approaching this in stages. “Print Farm Alpha”, which is now complete, was the stage where they developed their farm system technology.

Mason 3D Printer

The Mason 3D Printer [Source: Slant 3D]

This includes a custom-made 3D printer, the Mason 3D Printer, which has an ability to eject completed parts all by itself.

I asked Bentz to reveal the secrets behind this ejection mechanism, but he wouldn’t say much, as it’s a key strategic advantage. I was able to determine that it has to do with a sophisticated bed adhesion system that allows the part to be released under some form of control. Ejected parts can land on a conveyor belt for collection.

Slant 3D has created a custom software solution that manages all the farm devices at once. They’ve been able to develop an automated process that allows an incredible 150 live 3D printers to be managed by a single operator.

Print Farm Beta

A portion of the hundreds of Mason 3D Printers at Print Farm Beta [Source: Slant 3D]

Currently Slant 3D is in the midst of building “Print Farm Beta”, which is a vastly scaled-up version of the equipment and process they developed during Print Farm Alpha. The goal here is to have an incredible 800 3D printers simultaneously in 24/7 operation. By Bentz’s arithmetic, this suggests they’d need only half a dozen people to manage such a site.

When complete, Print Farm Beta might well be the largest 3D print facility in the world, possibly exceeding Prusa Research’s 500 machines. A concept diagram appears at top. Bentz says:

“Over the next year we will be completing Print Farm Beta. Which will give us a break even with injection molding of nearly 100,000 parts on average.”

3D Printing vs Injection Molding

This is an intriguing result, as Slant 3D would then be able to take on a massive order immediately, since competing injection molding operations would have to wait for molds to be designed, tested and produced. Meanwhile, arrays of 3D printers need only be sent the next job to execute.

I asked Bentz whether they sell the Mason 3D Printer, and the answer is basically no. However, they will sell individual units to customers so they can test prints to simulate what they’d receive from Print Farm Beta.

Bentz says the array configuration will solve the speed problem, but now the industry still faces the design problem. Before committing to such massive amounts of 3D printing, parts will have to be properly designed for production on 3D printers, and that’s a skill that’s still pretty rare these days. Bentz says:

“If you’re designing for 3D printing you want to minimize surface area and don’t worry about part volume; that’s just the opposite of what you’d do with injection molding!”

FFF For Array 3D Printing

1000 mass produced 3D printed phone stands [Source: Slant 3D]

I asked Bentz why focus on FFF-style 3D printing when there are other 3D printing processes available that can supposedly achieve high throughput. He believes that “FFF is the only 3D printing technology that can achieve production scale at a good cost.”

Print Farm Gamma

I asked Bentz what’s next for the company, and he explained a rather dramatic leap for the next stage of company development:

“We will be building Print Farm Gamma to serve as a full digital warehouse and distribution center. That will be able to print and ship individual parts at the same cost as if they had been made with traditional manufacturing by the millions. This will mean that anyone in the world can design a product and have it manufactured and delivered to potentially millions of people for basically the cost of hosting a website.”

Many years ago I wrote about a futuristic concept I called the “Anything Factory”, where a static factory can run 24/7 making literally anything requested.